Milford library receives donated telescope

MILFORD – Sue-Ellen Szymanski pulled a book cart out of her office Monday afternoon.

On it sat the newest, and certainly most expensive, item the Milford Town Library loans out: an Orion StarBlast 4.5-inch Astro Reflector telescope.

Szymanski, the library's youth services supervisor, and her husband, Robert, donated the $350 telescope to the library as part of a new initiative in Massachusetts called the Library Telescope Program.

"We want more young explorers and astronomers," Szymanksi said.

The library will loan the telescope out for a week at a time after July 31, when library and Aldrich Astronomical Society staff will take the tool and four others like it to the town park for demonstration.

More than 50 people are currently registered for the demonstration, but tickets still remain, Szymanski said.

The telescope is strong enough to reveal 7,000 to 8,000 stars out of the range of the naked eye, said John Root of the Aldrich Astronomical Society.

"The moon and deep sky objects will show far more detail than one could see with the common beginners telescopes," he said.

The telescope, like the others employed by the program, is typically intended for advanced and professional use, though the Library Telescope Program modifies the units to make them sturdier and more user-friendly, Root said.

The year-old Library Telescope Program has helped nine libraries in the state acquire telescopes, including Milford's. Root said he hopes to raise that number to a dozen in the coming months. He plans to repeat the process every three or four months, he said.

The New Hampshire Astronomical Society started a similar program in 2008, he said. They now have telescopes in more than 90 libraries. A program in Maine started in 2011 and now has 31.

"A lot of town libraries, especially smaller towns, have extremely curtailed budget constrictions," he said. "They just don't have room for things like this."

The library received a $7,500 grant from the National Board of Libraries for science funding. Szymanski said she plans to fund another telescope with help from the grant.

"Explore, explore, explore," she said. "We want to get the kids involved and excited. Now we have another tool that lets us do that."

Bill Shaner can be reached at 508-634-7582 or at wshaner@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @BShaner_MDN.